Like a deadly game of hide-and-seek, sometimes a villain will search for a hidden protagonist. The villain will often be walking slowly, to increase dramatic tension. We may flash to the protagonist, hidden inside an air vent, behind crates, under a table or inside a bathroom stall.

Named for the line often spoken in a mocking singsong tone by the chaser, either to taunt the chased out of hiding or just to scare them. The line itself originates from the more innocuous context of the children's game Hide-and-Seek.

Examples

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Anime and Manga

Hellsing: Opening scene of volume 1. Jan also does this when searching for Integra.

In the climax of Return of the Jedi, Luke doesn't want to fight his father, so he hides in the poorly lit corners of the throne room, Vader taunts him by reading his mind and finding out about his sister.

Something like this occurs in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Roger is hiding in a concealed room in a bar. Big Bad Judge Doom enters and toys with the customers for a while, then starts tapping out "Shave and a Haircut" on the walls, which no Toon can resist. Eventually Roger can't stand it anymore and bursts through the wall singing "Two bits!" and Doom grabs him.

Referenced in an issue of the comic, where Roger is hiding in a hollow tree stump until the villain knocks it twice, which makes Roger jump out and shout "Who's there?"

The female protagonist in the Charles Bronson film Murphy's Law calls this out when walking through the judge's house who unknown to her is already dead. At that point the door slams behind her and she's seized by his killer.

The mall scene in Der Clown ? Payday.

Appropriately enough, in the horror movie Hide and Seek. Emily is hiding in her room from her father, who's been possessed by his Split Personality and Charlie comes in, doing an Ironic Echo of the game Emily used to play with her mother.

That's funny...I could have sworn I saw a little girl named Emily go in here...

In Star Trek: Insurrection, Picard actually sings this while searching for Data (who has been damaged and rendered temporarily 'insane'), drawing an odd look from Worf.

Stated word for word by Cady in the 1991 version of Cape Fear when looking for Bowden who hides behind a dumpster.

In The Rock, one of the marines says something similar to this while looking for Nicholas Cage's character.

Smaug: Well... thief? I smell you, I hear your breath, I feel your air. Where are you? Where are you? ...Come now, don't be shy... Step into the light...

Assassins. A Professional Killer says this when searching through a hotel's computer database, to track down which room his target is using.

Queen of the Damned. During his video interview, when asked if he's worried about how other vampires will react to him being a vampire in the spotlight, Lestat says he only has one thing to say to them.

We are not playing hide and seek, Harry. You cannot hide from me. Does this mean you are tired of our duel? Does this mean that you would prefer me to finish it now, Harry? Come out, Harry... Come out and play, then... it will be quick... it might even be painless... I would not know... I have never died...

Bellatrix also does this in the Department of Mysteries: "Come out, come out, little Harry..."

Ammet the marid does this with Bartimaeus in The Ring of Solomon. It also happens when Honorious the afrit is trying to catch Kitty in Gladstones tomb in The Golems Eye.

During a memorable scene in Something Wicked This Way Comes, evil carnival owner Mr. Dark searches the town library for young protagonists Will and Jim, alternately guessing aloud where they might be hiding and trying to trick them into revealing themselves (and tempt Will's father into betraying them) by offering each of them their greatest secret desires.

Live Action TV

A rare example done by a protagonist occurs in New York Undercover: going in to arrest an ex-con sex offender on suspicion of an attack. "Come out come out wherever you are!...you little pervert."

In the episode "School Hard", Spike does this to Buffy, complete with singsong tone (though he doesn't actually say the line; instead it's "Someone's in the ceiling...") He does say "Here kitty-kitty" which may as well be an alternate title for this trope.

In "Ted" we're treated to Buffy sitting on a playground swing in the middle of the night saying, "Vampires, heeerrre vampires..."

In "Helpless" the Serial Killer-turned vampire stalking Buffy through the house says, "Hide and seeek, hide and seeek..."

In an inversion of this trope, Doctor Who has a little child in a gas mask looking for his mother. Thing is, the kid infects people so that they grow a gas mask over their faces, so when he meets his sister Nancy on the streets, he begins doing this.

"Mummy! Where are you?...Mummy! I'm coming to find you!"

Of course in reality she is actually his mother, thus justifying his questioning of her (even if unintentionally.)

From Max Payne, during the battle with B.B.: "Maxey, Maxey, Maxey...Come out, come out wherever you are! You know, I really hate people who refuse to see the inevitable, refuse to do the smart thing..."

Left 4 Dead sees Francis, one of the survivors, deliver one of these in a rather blunt fashion when he hears a Hunter nearby: "I hear a Hunter! Come on out, wussy!"

The super mutants in Fallout 3 sometimes say exactly this when you hide from them, complete with a short, almost sarcastic laugh.

The Manhunt series likes to invoke this whenever the protagonist is hiding in the shadows and the Mooks are looking for him.

Batman: Arkham Asylum: Although this line is never said, its typical follow-up line is used by Scarecrow if Batman is seen by the good doctor's hypodermic-needle-gloved Freddy Krueger-esque monster self in his fear-gas-induced visions of DEATH. Batman must avoid him by hiding in the shadows, but if he's seen, the follow-up line is spoken:

"Oh, there you are...(SLASH)"

In Borderlands the Mooks say exactly this (often followed by a "What are you, scared? Or something?).

When Emilia is looking for the Pope in Yggdra Union, she starts calling out the traditional Japanese hide-and-seek lines in frustration ("Olly olly oxenfree!" in the English version). It doesn't come off as particularly frightening because it takes her a very long time for her to find him, on top of which Emilia is fourteen.

In the last section of Mad Father, while Aya is being chased with a chainsaw by her titular father.

Aaaayaaaa... Doko ni iru no kanaaaa~?

Khamsin of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance will sometimes unleash an attack that kicks up big chunks of the ground around him. He is less than pleased when the player uses these as hiding spots, shouting the common example as well as a few other taunts.

In Godslave, Edith and Turner play this briefly when she tries to escape from him at the museum, although Turner choses this moment to play Affably Evil card.

Western Animation

The second BIONICLE film did a variation of this: Vakama was hidden using his invisibility power, and at some point, Makuta tried to taunt him out of hiding using the tactics described in this trope.

In Samurai Jack's "Jack and the Zombies", Aku got hold of Jack's sword and sought the terrified hero throughout a cemetery, while mockingly saying: "Oh Samurai! Where are you, Samurai? You can run but you cannot hide, Because I can Smell your Blood!"

Used by The Monarch on The Venture Bros., lampshaded with his comment afterward of "I know it sounds corny, but believe me, it sounded good on the speakers".

Used in a Rugrats episode in which Angelica has a nightmare that her new baby brother is evil and can talk to her.

Used innocently in an episode of Danger Mouse by Penfold, as he searches for the titular hero.

Beany and Cecil had Dishonest John as Singood the Sailor summoning an inebriated genie from a bottle with "Come out, come out, whatever you are!"

Said by Gargamel in The Smurfs episode "Hogatha's Heart Throb" when he just got his hands on her magic whistle actually, her bird call.

In Mighty Mouse Meets Deadeye Dick, our hero defeats and humiliates Deadeye. The outlaw returns with a gang of thugs as they call Mighty Mouse out from a saloon.

"Whoever crosses me," said Dick, "is bound to face disaster.

Come on out, you yellow polecat. Come out and face your master!"

Said by The Joker in an episode of Batman: The Animated Series, “Be A Clown”. Joker ends up chasing a child he inadvertently kidnapped (after an attempt to blow up everyone at said child’s birthday party, no less) in a dark, creepy amusement park which seems to have been abandoned. Yes, the scenario is just as scary as it sounds. Especially chilling when he takes a stick and drags it along the gating.

The Lumberjack ghost says this word for word when hunting Dipper and Pacifica in the Gravity Falls episode "Northwest Mansion Mystery".

Mr. Tod says it in "The Tale of the Unguarded Garden" from Peter Rabbit after Peter, his sister and friends elude his grasp and hide from him.

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